Rogue builds
The Rogue is primarily a melee damage dealer. This section lists common talent builds for both dagger and sword. Talent builders can be used to test different builds or slight variants on the ones listed below, and links as well as details can be found on the Rogue talent page. Because talent trees were significantly altered in the 2.0.3 patch, old talent builds have been discarded and new talent builds have been developed. Listed below you will find several common and popular talent builds that have been tuned to maximize effectiveness. These were originally taken from the stickied forum post on the official rogue forums, but most have been heavily edited to adapt to patches. Level 70 Dagger Builds Mutilate - 41/20/0 - PvE This is one of the more common builds as people hit 70 because it is so much fun to play and very competitive in terms of dealing damage. DW Spec actually improves Mutilate damage. While it's not as much as opportunity, it improves white damage so much that this is the #1 mutilate build for sustained DPS. Envenom and deadly poison add a lot of damage as well since they are not mitigated by armor. It seems that using envenom to kill all your poison is a bad idea for mutilate, but it turns out not to be a problem with a 40% application rate, dagger attack speed, and active slice and dice. Just try to watch for it to be re-applied and let your energy build up a bit while you wait. A good crit rate is absolutely key for this build. As you gear up with epics, this build will scale very nicely. Mutilate - 41/0/20 - PvP Compare to a PvE mutilate build, this one sacrifices white damage from imp. S&D, precision, and dual-wield spec in favor of more burst damage from opportunity and serrated blades (especially against cloth wearers). It also includes MoD and camo to give you the edge when stealthed. With the inclusion of imp sap, this build is arguably more appropriate for heroic 5mans than 41/20/0 mutilate, but it lags behind in overall damage. Also, after patch 2.1, imp sap will no longer be required, so this will no longer be true. All mutilate builds have good viability in both PvE/PvP, but this one is focused on PvP. Combat Daggers - 15/41/5 This build is a natural evolution of the classic Combat Daggers build. Major new inclusions are Combat Potency and Surprise Attacks. While Slice and Dice may not benefit from Surprise Attacks, the extra 10% to Backstabs is a great bonus. This build will really only shine in long fights where you have enough time for combat potency to proc 4 times. Before that time, you haven't yet gained a backstab. Like the combat daggers builds of the past, it will likely claim the #1 spot for DPS on raid bosses. Seal Fate / Premed - 30/0/31 This build takes burst damage and combo point generation from Seal Fate and adds cooldown management with Prep. Dirty Deeds, Premed and Iniative offer the ability to open with 5 CP for huge opening and CB for high finishing damage. Imp Ambush with CB for big openers, and Elusivness for shorter CDs. Shadowstep Build - 20/0/41 This build allows for extremely high burst damage, allowing the use of all of the good subtlety talents and just enough of the assassination ones to give you the extra power you need. It also provides +10% Attack Power and +15% agility. Combat Shiv - 21/40/0 A build that bases its strengths off of high crit rates, fast energy regen, low energy CP, constant applications of daze and amazing stunlocking, Combat Shiv is for players who like to let off a flurry of hits capped by one big finisher. The new talent Shiv takes advantage of Dual Wield Specialization and Combat Potency like never before. With a fast OH (1.3), allows 3 shivs per 100 energy. Combat Potency effectively takes 3 additional energy off Shiv (20% proc = 15 energy in 5 Shivs = 3 less energy per Shiv). In practice, the energy gained from Combat Potency (from both Shiv and white swings) allow for near nonstop Shiv spamming. The flurry of Shivs ensure Blade Twisting procs and free up a Crippling Poison slot (Daze effect is preferred as it dismounts and is virtually undispellable). Assassination tree can be twiddled with depending on your preference of Eviscerate or Envenom. The current build allows for max Eviscerate and Envenom damage, depending on situation. Sword/Fist/Mace Builds Combat Swords - 20/41/0 A pretty typical upgrade to combat swords that includes combat potency. Make sure you find yourself a quick offhand, Latro's Shifting Sword from Black Morass for instance, and hold on to it until you get an epic upgrade. You can easily switch out swords for either mace or fist spec. For fists you'll want to grab the Reflex Blades from Arcatraz and Warp Splinter's Thorn from Botanica. The 1.3s offhand dagger will work out much better for you than any offhand fist currently in the game, other than the Gladiator's Left Ripper. This is generally a pure PvE build due to the high DPS at the cost of defense/stuns. However; the consistently high DPS can burn things down quite well in the arenas as long as you're getting some heals. The best finishing move cycle with this build is 5SnD/5rupt/3evisc (SS to build combo points), but it takes some practice to deal with periods of low or high energy due to combat potency procs. Seal Fate / Hemo Swords - 31/0/30 This build takes the hemo build up to lvl 70 with the addition of Seal Fate for even faster combo point generation and Vigor for the extra 10 energy. The points in Master of Subtlety and Deadliness help bring up the damage output of the spec. Typically, this build is avoided as there tends not to be high enough critical strike percentage to make Seal Fate shine without dagger talents. Seal Fate / Combat Fists 30/31/0 The sword/fist/mace version of seal fate / combat. A great build for mixed PvE/PvP viability. It will lag behind a full combat build in PvE, but the +20% healing from quick recovery makes it much easier to survive a boss fight. In PvP you'll have plenty of combo points for stuns and eviscerates along with high damage output, and in arenas it will be easier to heal you with quick recovery. You still would be better off using a full combat fist build, but this offers something different for those that wish it. A high crit chance makes all the difference in stacking combo points on a target quickly, so this is best suited for a fist build. Unfortunately, you are still not going to be able to take full advantage of SF without the higher crit rates of dagger skills like Improved Backstab and Improved Ambush, or even Mutilate. Hemo - 27/3/31 A standard PvP hemo build for your best stunlock efficiency. You can achieve near perfect stunlocks with hemo. While this build is lackluster at best versus what it was at level 60 with proper weapons and high AP, some people still enjoy the stunlock. For PvE purposes this build is awful and cannot compete with a combat variant because of the lack of 2.8 and most importantly, 2.9 speed weapons at 70. This should be used as a pvp build only. You can also use sleight of hand in this build for an extra 2% resilience instead of something else in the sub tree. Old level 60 builds Please see Rogue builds/Level 60 Leveling to 60 For soloing, grinding, and leveling, you will want to focus on swords and put a majority of your points into the Assassination and Combat trees. Leveling with daggers is possible, especially with a group, but is less efficient soloing than leveling with swords. Until you start partying regularly, and doing instances, you will want to stick with swords as your primary weapons. Sword/Dagger is perfectly fine until you take sword specialization, after which time you will want to get yourself a speedy, high DPS sword for your offhand. Levels 10-39 * Improved Sinister Strike 2/2 * Remorseless Attacks 2/2 * Malice 3/5 * Ruthlessness 3/3 * Malice 5/5 * Relentless Strikes 1/1 * Lethality 5/5 * Murder 2/2 * Improved Eviscerate 2/3 * Cold Blood 1/1 * Improved Kidney Shot 3/3 * Improved Eviscerate 3/3 * Seal Fate 3/5 http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=fGebox0scZM Level 40 (Respec) * Improved Sinister Strike 2/2 * Improved Gouge 3/3 * Deflection 5/5 * Riposte 1/1 * Endurance 2/2 * Precision 5/5 * Dual Wield Specialization 5/5 * Blade Flurry 1/1 * Sword Specialization 5/5 * Aggression 1/3 * Adrenaline Rush 1/1 http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=wZG0Ed0Vzx0oo Levels 41-60 * Aggression 3/3 * Improved Eviscerate 3/3 * Malice 3/5 * Murder 2/2 * Malice 5/5 * Relentless Strikes 1/1 * Lethality 5/5 * Ruthlessness 2/3 http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=whgboxZG0Ed0Vzx0ho Category:Guides Category:Rogue Talents